Review: Family Guy “Inside the Family Guy”

Deep inside of you…

Spoilers Below

In this week’s new Family Guy episode, “Inside Family Guy”, James Woods shows us what happens behind the scenes on the set of Family Guy. Some very fourth-wall breaking stuff, as we realize the Griffins are a real family that has their antics recorded and aired– much like the Osbournes or Kardashians. In the intro sequence, we see that Lois actually has no hair and the orange hair is a wig!

Along the way, there are interviews of the cast, we get to see inside the writer’s room, and it turns out that Peter is quite a diva on set. The writers come up with a storyline where Peter dies, and David Spade replaces him on the show as a character called “Uncle Ricky”. Peter struggles to live on his own, and the Griffins end up missing him (since David Spade ultimately annoys everyone).

Much like The Simpsons’ “Behind the Laughter”, this episode could have been really funny and memorable. I get the feeling that a lot of Family Guy fans may really enjoy this episode, but I’m not feeling it this week. I found most of it just slow, dull, and groan worthy. The pacing of the episode just kind of plodded along awkwardly, and I felt like there were a lot of attempts at jokes that totally fell flat. James Woods annoyed me, as did Brian and Lois. Even Stewie’s parts were weak.

However, there were definitely a couple of really funny spots in “Inside Family Guy”. I laughed out loud at the part when Peter first leaves the show and describes his “passion”, which is sexually explicit art of the Minions characters (from the kids movie Despicable Me). I also laughed a lot at the end, where Peter got hit in the groin repeatedly by bags of nickels. Insanely hilarious. Also, it’s important to note that the art on Family Guy is so great now. It’s such an improvement from the primitive art in those first seasons– and it’s been really interesting to see its progress.

I was really waiting for more funny spots in this week’s show, but I’ll just have to wait two more weeks for a new episode. The next one features Chris and Taylor Swift. Should be fun.